The subject of the present invention is a dental instrument for the treatment of caries and for oral surgery, of the type comprising a laser beam emission source, the said laser radiation being conveyed by optical fibre through the dental instrument up to the zone to be treated.
In what follows, a dental instrument employing laser radiation will be described specifically. It will be understood that this is in no sense limiting; the principles described will also be usable in surgery.
The sought-after aim is to obtain the painless ablation of hard or soft tissues (dentine, cement, pulp etc). For this purpose it is necessary to engender the vaporising, or even the sublimating, of these tissues without the tooth undergoing a rise in temperature and hence absorbing a significant quantity of energy or of power.
The lasers currently used in dentistry are provided with a light-conducting device which terminates in a hand-piece enabling use of the laser beam in the mouth. These hand-pieces are somewhat impractical to use since they are too bulky, this greatly hampering accessibility to the mouth, particularly when working at the back of the mouth. Moreover, these lasers are in general controlled by means of a programmed device which does not allow the practitioner, without interrupting the treatment, to adapt perfectly the laser operating parameters to the effects which he observes whilst operating. Finally, the purchase of a laser for a practitioner represents a high investment, which it is not currently possible to share out among several practices in the case of group practices, other than by moving all the laser equipment from one practice to the next.